Isole della Guinea

Title

Isole della Guinea

Description

Map shows the Gulf of Guinea with the countries Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria in Africa.

ca. 1695

Artist

Coronelli (1650-1718)

Coronelli Vincenzo, (1650 – 1718). He was a cosmographer, geographer, biographer, encyclopedist, globe maker, inventor and an expert of engeneering and hydraulics. Extraordinarily versatile mind and an extremely tireless man, he produced more than 140 pieces in different genres. At the age of 15, he entered the Franciscan Order, which he then guided as Gran Generale from 1699. He became famous as geographer and mathematician, awakening the interest in these subjects in Italy at the end of the XVII century.

Historical Description

Guinea: The land that is now Guinea belonged to a series of African empires until France colonized it in the 1890s, and made it part of French West Africa. Guinea declared its independence from France on 2 October 1958. The country is named after the Guinea region. Guinea is a traditional name for the region of Africa that lies along the Gulf of Guinea. It stretches north through the forested tropical regions and ends at the Sahel. The English term Guinea comes directly from the Portuguese word Guiné, which emerged in the mid-15th century to refer to the lands inhabited by the Guineus, a generic term for the black African peoples south of the Senegal River, in contrast to the "tawny" Zenaga Berbers above it, whom they called Azenegues or Moors.